Stephen Flynn criticises Westminster over Post Office scandal

       Stephen Flynn’s latest attack on Westminster quickly fell apart after he tried using the Post Office scandal to drive a wedge between Scotland and the UK.

       Yesterday, Mr Flynn used his PMQs question to claim “sub-postmasters never stood a chance against the Westminster establishment”.

       He told the Commons: “The Horizon system introduced by Tony Blair - the former Labour Party leader and now a Knight of the Garter; a Horizon system defended by the current leader of the Liberal Democrats - himself a Knight Batchelor; a Horizon scandal overseen by a former Conservative Prime Minister who now hides in the House of Lords as a Baron.

       “The reality is sub-postmasters never stood a chance against the Westminster establishment, did they?”

       After Mr Sunak batted away the SNP leader’s claims, Mr Flynn stood back up and claimed Mr Sunak “doesn’t quite get it”.

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       Stephen Flynn used the post office scandal to attack Westminster (Image: Parliament Live)

       “This isn’t just ‘a plague on all their houses’, this is a plague on this house itself - because injustice goes far beyond just the sub-postmasters.

       “Just ask the WASPI women, or the victims of the equitable life scandal, or the victims of the infected blood scandal, or the victims’ families from Grenfell or Hillsborough.

       “The reality is that when the public come knocking on the doors of this chamber seeking justice, the Government only ever answers when they have no options left.”

       He argued the public “are angry and Westminster”, and are right to be “because this place never really changes”.

       However his attack quickly unravelled, after it was pointed out Scotland’s own prosecution service was told of concerns about the Post Office scandal as far back as 2013.

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       One expert has said England is "much, much further down the road" on the scandal than Scotland (Image: Getty)

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       Furthermore, in Scotland the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) had sole responsibility for prosecuting Horizon cases, unlike in England where the Post Office acted as a private prosecutor.

       According to the BBC, a freedom of information request revealed the Crown Office north of the border was informed of possible issues in May 2013.

       Up to 100 cases in Scotland are estimated to be affected.

       Confronted about when the Scottish Government was first informed about the Scandal, Justice Secretary Angela Constance told the BBC: “I don’t have that information to hand”.

       Only two convictions in Scotland have been overturned so far, despite the country having a separate legal system to England and the powers to pass exoneration laws.

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       The lawyer who represented Susan Sinclair, a postmaster found guilty of embezzlement in 2004, demanded to know: “Why has it taken until 2023 for the first convictions in Scotland to be overturned by the appeal court?”

       Dr Andrew Tickell, a senior law lecturer in Scotland, also blasted the situation north of the border, calling the revelation that the Crown Office knew of problems “huge”.

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       "Did they stop prosecuting? Did it occur to them that any of their cases before 2013 might now be unsafe because of these uncertainties?

       "At the moment we know less about the Scottish dimensions of this scandal than we do about the rest of the UK."

       Mr Tickell further added that Scotland is only “just at the beginning” of addressing the scandal, whereas England and Wales are “much, much further down the road”.

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